This has actually happened with me. I was confused and could not answer to my friend. The context was the traffic sense in India, which is worst! 🙂
In that context, I was describing to my friend that in India, there is only one rule that there is no rule. There is no need to obey traffic rules, signals and the list goes on. But, here is how I got confused. I'm an Indian but I do follow traffic rules. Now what should be the sentence?
*Indians are the worst drivers……….blah blah blah….. and you know what, we can take turn from anywhere. Let it be from the middle of the road or highway."*
Or
*Indians are the worst drivers……….blah blah blah….. and you know what, they can take turn from anywhere. Let it be from the middle of the road or highway."*
I used we because I'm talking about Indians that includes me and I used they because I'm talking about Indians but here, I'm not included! 🙂
The second sentence with they seems proper if two non-Indians are talking about Indians. Being an Indian, if I speak that, it looks somewhat off to me.
How does a native speaker say this?
Best Answer
Since you're speaking in generalities, you can use the first person plural pronoun, even if you regard yourself as one of the exceptions (it's assumed that generalities can have exceptions). For example, I might say:
even if I happen to be a man who always remembers to make a reservation for our anniversary dinner well ahead of time.
I'm talking about men in general, and if I happen to be a man, that's the best way to say it – I should include myself in the first group, since I'm clearly a member of that group.
I suppose I could say:
but that seems more fitting for a women to say, not a man. If a man says it that way, he's muddling the conversation, by creating three groups instead of two.
Since these kind of remarks are often intended to be somewhat humorous, we dampen the humor when we get so particular about the pronouns. It's better to be a little self-deprecating and include ourselves with the group, even if we don't exhibit the behavior.
When your friend says:
that's more likely to make me smile or laugh, whle:
sounds more like a peeve or a rant against others in a group that person belongs to, and some of the humor is lost.